Is that he tells me leadership doesn’t come from politicians, it comes from the people — and that the people are the ones who have to lead. (He was one of the speakers tonight.) He says to get out and work in your communities and don’t wait for any politicians, because they’re not going to fix anything.
He refuses to let people piss and moan about Obama, and tells them to go out and make their own hope and change. And he’s right, damn him. It was never going to be as easy as electing someone.
Which is what I hate about him. And it’s why I wish he’d been president.
I was a Deanie. He’s not perfect but the dude had some common sense and decency.
That’s so nice. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Inspiring even?
So what do we do with all that leadership when the president and Congress are bought and paid for by the corporations? Because that is exactly what we have now.
You take over from the ground up – just like the right wing did, starting with school boards and town councils. The thing I love about NN is meeting the many, many Deanies who are doing just that. Especially in the South, the energy is inspiring,
If the people are leading, then we are right where we’re supposed to be.
The whole meme of “the people lead” is doublespeak and allows elected “leaders” (durh?) to get off the hook by pushing off the blame for their inaction. Corrupt is as corrupt does. How are people supposed to “lead” the “leaders” who were voted in to “lead” but who won’t “lead?”
There needs to be better articulation of the problem and the solution. Leaders explain things, leaders draft legislation, leaders pass laws.
The vague generic “people” can’t do these things because that’s the way the system works, individuals are elected to be “leaders.”
Maybe this is the best we can do in the richest (read “most indebted and therefore the most indentured and compromised” for “rich”) nation on Earth.
Well, there’s your problem. You want people to succeed in politics who are not politicians. That’s how Obama got elected. He gave the impression that he would never sully his carefully manicured hands with politics. That’s what a Clinton would do but we call it “triangulating”.
And so far, Obama has been faithful to his word. He doesn’t do politics. He’s all about old boys club negotiations with the MBA set in high tech conference rooms with catered gourmet lunches and spiffy PowerPoint slides.
To do his job well would have required a real love of getting into the dirt and rubbing shoulders with power brokers in congress and with average people.
He’s just that into politics.
I suspect Dean would be worse. No one outside of Netroots Nation really likes him and the scream is not the reason. It’s just the sense that he’s a dilettante and politics is a hobby, like gardening. Oh sure, he’s better than an amateur but he’s no Frederick and Olmsted.
so nice to see the leader of the bitter dead-ender caucus from the Effluence checking in!
MICHIGAN!
FLORIDA!
FACE SCRATCH!
RA RA RA!
I was not a Deanie, but I was very interested in him as a possible leader. However, since then, while he did implement his nationwide candidates (have someone run against every R), he’s said some things which leave me frustrated and confused.
He tends to say things which appeal to his audience (and, actually, telling people to grow a movement from the local offices up fits Netroots Nation). I can’t remember all of them right now, but they were enough for me to question whatever he says. I grew to not trust his words.
Dean is wrong or simply preaching to the NN11 choir (both, actually). In a representative democracy – the politicians have to advocate and legislate – that’s why it’s ultra important that we elect authentic progressive candidates. Everything else is ancillary to that primary goal. We have to elect a battalion of progressives to counter the battalion of careerists and opportunists of every political stripe that tend occupy the House, Senate and White House.
NRIII 2012!
Put a progressive Democrat in Congress.
The corporate DC DLC Democrats screwed up in 2004 by choosing Kerry over Dean.
Similarly the corporate DC Republicans were wrong in 2008 by choosing McCain over Huckabee (not that I like Huckabee … but I think he could have won).
Howard Dean is the typical DNC Democrat. It’s just his schtick to pretend he’s not. I can’t think of a time where he’s ever seriously crossed the party or its centrist, corporatist leaders.
“He says to get out and work in your communities and don’t wait for any politicians, because they’re not going to fix anything.”
Sort of like, say, becoming a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER? Then they might come and tell you that a promising dedicated person like you could do some much more in the state legislature or the congress, and then who knows what you could do for your people!!
I have already decided not to wait for any politician, and I already tried for years to help in the community. I am burnt out, broke down, angry and depressed.